Roast Chicken, Coq-au-Vin-Style

A couple of months ago, I came across a recipe for Coq au Vin, a meal of chicken stewed with wine, carrots, and mushrooms. I tried it one evening and loved the outcome...but wasn't a big fan of how long it took or how complicated it was. It was a dance of adding and removing ingredients, using both the stovetop and the oven back and forth -- in short, a little more complicated than I typically look for on a weekday evening when I'm cooking with kids underfoot.

Enter this week, when I'm running out of my supply of chicken broth in the freezer, and thus, need to roast a whole chicken soon so I have said chicken broth for a soup I'm planning to make later in the week. I have a nice, but inexpensive, bottle of merlot sitting on my counter, just waiting to be used in some capacity; a bag of carrots and a box of mushrooms in my fridge; and some leftover thyme from a meal last week. Hmm....what delicious meal can incorporate all those ingredients, be made on an early weeknight, while still providing me with a chicken carcass with which to make broth? Meet one of my new creations: Coq au Vin, the easy way.
Ok, so the picture doesn't do it justice, 1) because I didn't set up the plate well, and 2) because my camera stinks. But the idea is that it was delicious. So delicious, Eric was raving about it the next day and none of us minded eating the leftovers for a second night. I served it with steamed wehani (an incredibly fragrant dark brown rice that I got on clearance at Kroger a while back) and roasted broccoli. As an added bonus, the chicken broth that was made from the carcass is probably the best broth I've ever made. I seriously can't wait to cook with it.

So here's a rough estimation of what I did to make this "keeper" dish:

Ingredients:
6 slices bacon, chopped
1 whole chicken, rinsed and patted dry
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 T. olive oil
1 yellow onion, sliced
6-8 carrots, cut diagonally into 2"-pieces
8 oz. baby bella mushrooms, quartered
5-6 fresh thyme sprigs
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 T. brandy or Cognac
1 c. dry red wine
1 T. cornstarch

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F. In a skillet, fry the bacon until slightly crispy. Drain on paper towels and set aside. Sprinkle the whole chicken with salt and pepper and place a few carrots, onions, mushrooms, and thyme inside the cavity. Heat the oil in a roasting pan or Dutch oven over med-high heat. Add the pressed garlic, followed by the chicken. Brown each side of the chicken for 2-4 minutes, or until slightly brown in spots. Carefully add the brandy/Cognac and the wine to the pan and allow the alcohol to cook off for a minute or two. Add the bacon to the roasting pan, sprinkling it on top of and around the chicken. Add the onions in a layer around the chicken, followed by the carrots, the mushrooms, and then the thyme sprigs. Cover and place in the oven; roast for about an hour, or until the innermost parts register at 165F. Remove from oven, throw away the thyme sprigs and remove the carrots, mushrooms, onions, and bacon to a separate bowl, using a slotted spoon. With a basting bulb, remove all the liquid from around the chicken and put it in a small saucepan. Add the cornstarch (making a paste with a small amount of the broth first), and heat the liquid until it thickens to a gravy. Place the chicken on a large plate and serve with the vegetable and the gravy.